Honestly go for the i5 or i7 K series. I personally recommend this if you are gaming. If you are infact only going to game (no video editing) go for the i5. If you are going to edit and game go for the i7 because it has hyperthreading which you REALLY want for editing. Aside from this, if you are only going to edit and no gaming stick with the AMD processor but be careful because games barely utilize 4 cores and even less, 6.

thanks guys, aslong as the performance is really good as i play at competitive level, 1 more question about the Asus VG236HE 120 Hz 3d Ready monitor...i've heard its teh best 1 on the market atm with the best colours and overall specs' etc. does it easily compare with the alienware aw2310, benq xl241 and the acer gd245..?

If you are competitive gaming then you should definitely move to the i5 or i7 and also be running an SSD hard drive instead of the normal standard type, at least for a boot drive at any rate. The rest looks pretty good.

If it is just for gaming, a Phenom II x4 will be fine, yes an i5 or i7 is faster, no doubt, but I know many many folks that use either or, it does not make you a better player :P

Thing is if you do go AMD route, you may not get "as good" speed, no, but it is plenty fast enough, Sandy-B is faster sure, but its not going to add 20FPS so overall its not really worth the cost, same thing with the 6 core AMD ones, they are very good, but much more meant for "work" the x4 chips are more "gaming" oriented. a 955BE c3 revision is plenty fast, I am using one, and love it, I ge ton average 60+ FPS with my setup with a Radeon 6870 in every game I currently play either maxed out or medium/high settings.

Its the player that matters more, as long as it plays good, thats what matters :P

I also would drop the motherboard and get ASUS sabertooth or the one I am using M5A99X EVO, very very awesome motherboards, and can use SLI or Crossfire, not to mention they are loaded with more then most folks use, I am using this board with above x4 955 and G.Skill 8gb kit 1866Mhz memory, 1.38v 4.1Ghz 2.7Ghz on the CPU/NB and the HT 2100, plenty fast believe me.

I am also using an OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD as my OS drive with Firmware version 1.13 and use a caviar black 640gb as my game drive, it is partitioned and things turned off that do not/shouldnt be left on.

I would also recomend changing the power supply, not that it is bad, but there are better, you really do not "need" 850watts for a single 6950, the one I am using Corsair HX750 would work fine and still have plenty of overhead, another choice could be Antec TP 750 GOLD, Antec HCP750, or an XFX 750. I guess biggest thing, make sure it has enough power connectors, and at least 52a on the 12v rail with 550+ watts available on the 12v, research the one you want to go with, plenty of reviews out there after all.

For monitors ASUS makes some very excellent ones, I am not sure your space that you have, but I prefer 24.5-27 inch in size, plenty large enough, and you can see a little more on the screen, though 24 wide screen or 22 wide screen are usually the best sizes for the way it looks. 120Hz is a very good thing, and do make sure it is running 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 resolution so you can get the most out of that GPU you selected.

As for the GPU the XFX XXX(830 core clock) 6950 2gb is one of if not the best 6950 there currently is, just make sure you get the one that uses dual fan, they overclock very well, they run quite cool, and they also look nice and are easy enough to clean from my understanding.

For the case DF-85, Rosewill Blackhawk ultra, HAF 932, Raven 3, Corsair 500R, Midgard II all would be very good choices, I have a Raven 3 and love it, excellent cooling, and plenty of room, takes some work to keep it looking clean though :P

Also for the cpu, I would recommend an aftermarket cooler, this way here you can overclock it some(very easy to do with a black edition cpu) this way here you can get the most out of the gpu and overall system. I am using a hyper 212+ with 2 of the same stock fan(it only comes with 1) am using it with MX4 paste, and my cpu has never went above 45c even as overclocked and overvolted as I have it, very excellent cooler and quite low cost, just make sure it fits in the case you decide to go with :)

I suppose to each thier own, I personally feel that even though Intel does have the faster chips, it shouldn`t always be getting team blue, when team red is good enough, we need them to stay in business as well after all, and it really is not like comparing a pinto to a ferrari, they are both fast for thier cost, Intel is faster yes, but AMD is not uselss, not by any means.

Oh yeh, and you may want/need a DVD drive as well :P I have ASUS 24 B1ST drive, low cost, and works well enough( I do not burn dvd so I do not know how it works for this :P)

A keyboard/mouse, I use Ideazon/steel series Merc keyboard and Coolermaster Inferno Mouse
Headset I currently am using Gamecom 367 headset
Sound card(I like soundcards better then onboard) I use Asus XONAR DX sound card

As well as maybe a couple of 120mm fans if you need the extras, I use Scythe Slipstream 120mm 110cfm fans and Xigmatech 120mm Purple Crystal fans both are reasonably priced and good air/noise with plenty of pressure so you can use them anywheres :)